United Kingdom

More offshore plant go ahead

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Six further offshore wind projects in Britain have been given £59 million in capital grants. All the projects have consent and are being developed under the first round of UK offshore wind construction.

Announcing the capital grants, energy minister Stephen Timms said he had to find extra funds to meet the six bids in full. Only £44 million was available in the original pot of grant funding for offshore wind. Timms said the extra £15 million comes from a separate budget earmarked for renewables development and there will still be "additional resource available" for further round one projects if they gain planning consent.

Grants of £10 million each go to: SeaScape Energy, owned by EDF, for its Burbo project in Liverpool Bay; AMEC Wind's project at Lynn, off Skegness, Lincolnshire; RES and British Energy's project at Inner Dowsing, also off Skegness; EDF Energy's project at Cromer off Norfolk; the Rhyl Flats project by National Wind Power (NWP); and a capital grant worth £9 million goes to GE Wind for its wind farm at Gunfleet Sands, off Clacton-on-Sea, Essex.

The £10 million grant for Rhyl Flats replaces a £4 million grant awarded in 2002 which NWP renegotiated because it its earlier bid was too low. The latest grants meant that capital subsidies totalling £117 million have been awarded to 12 projects off the UK coast, each to consist of 30 turbines.